Seven years ago this past May, I said goodbye to my amazing team at Freedom House and launched my own consulting practice.

I struck out on my own for many pragmatic reasons, but I was, primarily, on an exploratory mission. After spending the first phase of my career solidly in the NGO space, I was curious about the other ways social change work could be done, who else was out there, with what interesting ideas.

Like many of my peers, I was worn down by years of stringing grants together to keep human rights protection programs going; saddened every time funding scarcity for our work pitted organizations like mine against each other when we should have been working together; bitter about time lost to navigating bureaucratic, fear-based donor rules. I was convinced the neocolonial system I had worked in for so long was - at best - stifling innovation and more likely wasting time and money.

So off I went, to start my own business. And quite honestly, it’s been a blast.

I have loved being my own boss. I have loved working with a rainbow of clients from the business, research, philanthropy (and, yes, non-profit NGO) worlds. It allowed me to peek under the hoods of so many different organizations and approaches to social justice work.

And yet.

Somehow, recently, I have noticed my head inclining towards the siren call of (what do you even call it?) “regular,” in-house work.

I didn’t expect this. I thought I’d have a hard time convincing myself to ever let go of the flexibility and independence of working from anywhere and for only myself. But as organizations settle down and solidify their pandemic-era remote work approaches into longer term policies, I see a job market that might not force me to give up all of that. One that (in a growing number of cases) increasingly prioritizes well-being over antiquated chained to a desk mentalities.

Still, I was feeling strangely guilty - perplexed by my own surprising turn back to salaried work. How could I possibly give up this freedom and all that I have worked so hard to build?

Forbes' “Flexible work is feminist” clicked things into focus:

“Support for flexibility and the ability to work remotely is inextricably tied to gender equality and benefits us all: women, men, and marginalized genders…Flexible work isn’t an excuse for workers to do less work, but rather for them to do more life–more focused work, more family time, and a greater focus on their well-being. It’s not a rejection of work, but a renouncement of a system that hasn’t served us well.”

The truth is, nothing is lost.

Seven years ago, I left a job market where remote, flexible work was an anomaly. This exploratory mission introduced me to the joys of “doing more life,” while also doing more focused work. I proved to myself that I could run my own successful small business, identify gaps in the market and develop and define my niche. I realized that, for many (often structural) reasons, none of us are doing this work as well as we could be. I learned how to advocate for myself.

Which segues nicely to this, my official declaration: I’m back on the market. And since pretty much every work opportunity I have ever loved has come through the referrals and word of mouth of people I trust, I’m putting the call out to you.

Please let me know who is looking for a strategic coalition builder, analyst and writer eager to tackle human rights (and, ideally, climate justice) challenges. I offer 20+ years of experience working in-house for organizations like Freedom House and the International Rescue Committee, and consulting for Open Society Foundations, Transparency and Accountability Initiative, and the Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society (to name a few).

But I won’t torture you by turning this into a cover letter; my CV and more details about my work are on my website. Just know I’m starting to look, and that I’d love to hear your suggestions and ideas.

Here we go.